The present invention relates generally to the field of software asset management, and more particularly to software discovery.
Computer software is fundamentally a set of instructions written to carry out a desired task. Computer software can be stored and distributed in many forms, including but not limited to local storage such as hard disk drives and optical media (e.g. compact discs), networked storage devices, and even non-digital media (e.g. punch cards). The highly portable nature of computer software, and other digital content, facilitates duplication and distribution. Computer software can be made up of many individual software components, such as files or executable programs, which are typically encapsulated in an executable installation package for ease of distribution.